Mountain tribes of North Vietnam

Mountain tribes of North VietnamThe north-western corner of Vietnam offers a spectacular scenery of steeply eroded limestone rocks covered with jungle and terraced fields. This area is home to a great variety of mountain tribes, some still living as they have for generations. Their village architecture, language, and cultivating methods have many distinctive and attractive features. But it is the fabulous colours and intricate embroidery on their native dress that really make a journey into this remote region worth-while.

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’Black Dao women with hair frame.’
The hair of these Black Dao women in Tam Duòng is kept in place by a large silver frame and a thick black cord which is wrapped around the head. The coins on the cap of the child must protect it against evil spirits. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Black Dao women under umbrella.’
Black Dao women wear plain black trousers and jackets finished with a superb red ruff. The hair on their forehead is plucked (including the eyebrows) so that it cannot distract from the beauty of their clothing. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Band of Black Dao.’
A band of Black Dao in the mountains north of Bình Lu. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’It's about the baby.’
Like everywhere else in the world, the baby gets most of the attention, cradled on a basket in the market of Bac Hà. Being a Flower H’mong baby, he will grow up in a world of psychedelic colours, created in textile by his mother, aunts and sisters. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Market of Bac Hà.’
The Flower H’mong women of Lào Cai Provence, here seen on the Bac Hà market, are the most colourful of all branches of H’mong in Vietnam. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Market of Bac Hà.’
The Flower H’mong women of Lào Cai Provence, here seen on the Bac Hà market, are the most colourful of all branches of H’mong in Vietnam. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Market of Bac Hà.’
The Flower H’mong women of Lào Cai Provence, here seen on the Bac Hà market, are the most colourful of all branches of H’mong in Vietnam. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Butterfly skirt.’
Like a giant butterfly this Flower H’mong skirt is left drying on a village fence in the valley of the Chay River south east of Lào Cai. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Brick factory.’
Workers laden with unfired bricks climb rickety stairs to fill the bowels of this brick factory in the valley of the Dà River at Ky Son near Hòa Binh. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Stilted house in rice fields.’
A family of the White Thái mountain tribe lives in this stilted house at Lac Village near Mai Châu. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Stilted houses in Mai Châu.’
A street in the village of Mai Châu is lined with the stilted houses of the White Thái mountain tribe. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Morning toilet near an irrigation wheel.’
Near a bamboo made irrigation wheel, driven by the power of a tributary of the Nam La River, south of So’n La, a woman of the Black Thái mountain tribe is washing herself and her children. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Black Dao woman.’
The hair of this Black Dao woman in Tam Duòng is kept in place by a large silver frame and a thick black cord which is wrapped around the head. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Group of Black Dao women.’
A group of Black Dao women on a pass road north of Bình Lu. Photo Mick Palarczyk.

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’Psychedelic embrace.’
Teenage Flower H’mong girls in a friendly embrace on the market of Bac Hà, discussing the beauty of a necklace. They wear a psychedelic combination of colours. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Market of Bac Hà.’
The Flower H’mong women of Lào Cai Provence, here seen on the Bac Hà market, are the most colourful of all branches of H’mong in Vietnam. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Market of Bac Hà.’
The Flower H’mong women of Lào Cai Provence, here seen on the Bac Hà market, are the most colourful of all branches of H’mong in Vietnam. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Gossip.’
The Flower H’mong women of Lào Cai Provence, here seen on the Bac Hà market, are the most colourful of all branches of H’mong in Vietnam. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Brick factories near Hà Dông.’
Brick factories near Hà Dông make use of the clay that is to be found in the Red River valley west of Hanoi. Photo Mick Palarczyk

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’Stilted house.’
A family of the White Thái mountain tribe lives in this stilted house at Lac Village near Mai Châu. Photo Mick Palarczyk.